Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Team Was Originally Working on a Jak and Daxter Game

More realistic Jak and Daxter game was the precursor to The Last of Us.

Naughty Dog’s recently released The Last of Us was a seminal game, one that defined the generation and the system it was on; but did you know that it almost did not happen? When Naughty Dog first splintered off into two teams following the release of their earlier similarly seminal Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the team’s original project was to reboot Jak and Daxter for a new generation; before you get excited, make sure to see that video above.

All of a sudden, not so excited, are you? All of a sudden, there’s probably a sense of palpable relief that they didn’t go through with it. They would have gone so far away from the original game, it just wouldn’t have worked. Thankfully Naughty Dog is passionate about the games that it makes, instead of being passionate about brands, and it gladly passed up the reboot, opting, instead, to work on an all new project instead. That project became The Last of Us.